Cultural Appropriation—When Imitation Is Not The Best Form Of Flattery!

After I would be a sophomore in senior high school, a woman within my Advanced Theater class stole a dress-up costume from me.

The outfit under consideration would be a simple one: a tan tshirt tucked right into a vintage floral maxi skirt which i had bought on Etsy and two switch flops. The lady-we’ll call her Janice-hadn’t stopped making comments about how exactly cute my outfit was since I’d walked in to the classroom. Looking back, I do not think the outfit was an excessive amount of to create home about. I am talking about, I had been putting on switch flops. But apparently, it blew the socks from Janice because the following day she demonstrated as much as class within an outfit which was nearly identical.

It bothered me for several days! Clearly longer, because it’s been six many I’m still considering it. I simply couldn’t realise why someone would blatantly copy a whole outfit. A dress-up costume that (okay, without the footwear) I’d put lots of thought and intention into.

The main reason it felt like this type of personal attack has everything related to the origins of my own style. I’d developed likely to private schools where, for a long time, I had been needed to put on different iterations of the boxy, stiff, unflattering uniform. The gown codes at these schools were so strict, most of them restricting jewellery, certain kinds of athletic shoes, or even nailpolish. There is so very little space for any kind of cultivation of private style that when I went to my public senior high school, where there wasn’t any uniform, I felt like I did not know who I had been.

“In a lot of ways, getting a feeling of my own style provided the ability to tell your friends who I had been-to put myself on the planet when i pleased.”

The majority of the students inside my school had already created their core friend groups and developed a feeling of personal style. However I was the brand new, shateringly shy Black girl from private school without any buddies or fashion sense. I felt this immense pressure to signal what sort of person I had been through my clothes. The Way I outfitted would ultimately inform what individuals considered me and what sort of buddies I’d make. So, I spent a great deal of time cultivating and perfecting my wardrobe.

I required to thrift shopping and borrowing clothes from my grandmother’s closet. I had been super into bold prints, 90s florals, and-waisted jeans. Behind every outfit I used to college were many hrs of thought, intention, and looking within the mirror, criticizing myself at each position. In a lot of ways, getting a feeling of my own style provided the ability to tell your friends who I had been-to put myself on the planet when i pleased.

So, imaginable the whirlwind of feelings I felt when Janice demonstrated as much as school within my outfit from the day before. Clearly, her intentions weren’t intended to be malicious. She loved my outfit, and her method of showing which was by replicating it. However I still couldn’t help but feel excessively protective of the expression of my own style, which I’d spent a lot time cultivating.

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The Broader Implications of Cultural Appropriation

All jokes and dramatic exaggerations aside, I am aware that Janice stealing my outfit in tenth grade doesn’t hold many pounds within the grand plan of products. But I’m sure there’s something to become stated concerning the how copy-catting, when enacted by individuals with privilege, has cultural implications which are a lot more dangerous.

For instance, the inclination large brands need to describe any slightly drape-y type of outerwear like a “Kimono.” Or when white-colored and non-Black POC appropriate Black hairstyles for example Afros and box braids, while Black people are frequently discriminated against at work for putting on individuals identical hairstyles. An identical scenario plays out when large companies, for example Zara and H&M steal designs from small, independent designers. These businesses and cultural appropriators are simply adult copy-catters. Which behavior within the real life, unlike the petty, senior high school context, frequently results in the erasure of individuals around the receiving finish from the act.

“The reason individuals have such difficulty wrapping their heads round the issue of cultural appropriation happens because we’ve been trained at this type of youthful age that imitation is the greatest type of flattery.”

Cultural appropriation particularly is a problem that, despite MUCH discussion around the subject, is continually overlooked by brands, companies, and society in particular. It can make me question, actually, when the reason individuals have such difficulty wrapping their heads round the issue of cultural appropriation happens because we’ve been trained at this type of youthful age that imitation is the greatest type of flattery.

People imitate simply because they think a hair do or item of clothes are awesome or appealing in some manner. But rarely will they pause to inquire about if there’s a bigger story behind that hair do or item of clothing that they’re getting of context. Appropriators are frequently willfully unaware of this context, because this means respecting people as well as their tales in a manner that offers nothing for their own individual gain. It’s simpler to mimic underneath the guise of flattery than to admire from afar, recognizing that, as Solange declares in her own song “F.U.BU.”, “some shit you cannot touch.”

As people from the conscious fashion community, we must be the main thing on this cause. Too frequently the excitement words ethical, sustainable, fair trade, and conscious are utilized as a way for an finish. As really trying to be “conscious consumers” we have to work through the concept that labels on the clothing are sufficient. Will it really matter if your brand’s “kimono” was ethically or sustainably-made if they’re clearly misusing the a outfit from the culture it is not their very own? Conscious fashion won’t fully permeate the mainstream if ethical fashion brands aren’t using the implications of cultural appropriation seriously.

“Conscious fashion won’t fully permeate the mainstream if ethical fashion brands aren’t using the implications of cultural appropriation seriously. With regards to the way in which people decide to display in the world-there’s a sacredness that appropriation just can’t replicate.”

With regards to the way in which people decide to display in the world-the way you dress, the way you put on our hair, even lower to the way you speak-there’s a sacredness that appropriation just can’t replicate. Even if I remember Janice’s replication of my outfit, I can’t help but believe that her version felt very watered lower when compared with mine. Her version didn’t have a similar focus on detail or even the same flair. Yes, she was putting on my outfit, but in the finish during the day, the outfit meant a lot more in my experience of computer would ever mean to her. You have to people appropriating various facets of different cultures. The appropriated version should never be in a position to match the authenticity and overall essence from the original.

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“We must make a list of not just, ‘Who made my clothes?’, but additionally, ‘What’s a brief history behind my clothes?’”

I believe it’s essential that we go ahead and take history behind our clothes just like seriously once we go ahead and take processes through which they are created. We have to make a list of not just, “Who made my clothes?”, but additionally, “What’s a brief history behind my clothes?”, and “What kinds of clothing is suitable for my body system to occupy considering a historic and sociocultural context?”

It could seem like a great deal to consider while you’re just doing a bit of casual shopping online. But it’s an activity that, as conscious consumers, we have to take upon ourselves if we’re really likely to be by what we are saying we’re about.